Robert Habersham Coleman (1856-1930)
of Cornwall Hall, Lebanon Co., PA; Owner of the Cornwall Anthracite Furnace
He was just nine years old when he and his sister, Anne, inherited a controlling interest in one of the richest iron-producing businesses in America, established in 1798 by their great-grandfather (Robert Coleman) at Cornwall, Pennsylvania. When he was old enough to become involved in the family business, he sought to venture out on his own and forced a partition of the family holdings. He became owner of the Cornwall Anthracite Furnace and all other properties in Cornwall, including the charcoal furnace. By the early 1880s demand for charcoal-based iron was drying up and the Cornwall Furnace was losing money, so banking on newer technologies and anthracite, he closed the furnace on February 11, 1883. It was the right decision, and by 1889 his wealth had grown from $7-million to $30-million, and it was said that he and sister made $1,000 a day purely on interest alone. He built Cornwall Hall (see images) from 1872, but after his first wife's premature death in 1880 he ordered all work on it to stop and had it razed.
In addition to the furnaces, he gained a controlling interest in the Dime Savings Bank at Lebanon, modernized the Coleman farms, and invested in railway and a railway construction company in Florida. He was a generous philanthropist, giving money to his alma mater and various churches. He built houses, schools, and a church for his workers and in 1889 he created the summer colony of Mount Gretna as a pleasure stop on his Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad. But everything changed abruptly in just two years. In 1891, he lost two costly lawsuits and the Financial Panic of 1893 took his legs out from beneath him. The man who was worth $30-million just four years previously was ruined, and with Tuberculosis taking a hold on him, he moved his family (he had five children by his second wife) to Saranac Lake in New York's Adirondacks, and he died there, a recluse.
In addition to the furnaces, he gained a controlling interest in the Dime Savings Bank at Lebanon, modernized the Coleman farms, and invested in railway and a railway construction company in Florida. He was a generous philanthropist, giving money to his alma mater and various churches. He built houses, schools, and a church for his workers and in 1889 he created the summer colony of Mount Gretna as a pleasure stop on his Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad. But everything changed abruptly in just two years. In 1891, he lost two costly lawsuits and the Financial Panic of 1893 took his legs out from beneath him. The man who was worth $30-million just four years previously was ruined, and with Tuberculosis taking a hold on him, he moved his family (he had five children by his second wife) to Saranac Lake in New York's Adirondacks, and he died there, a recluse.
